What Rotherham United boss Steve Evans says Stockport County player Kyle Wootton told him after 'no red card' verdict

Visiting targetman Kyle Wootton had already been cautioned when he made a crude late challenge on Joe Rafferty in the first half and escaped a second yellow card.

Evans declared that the player came clean in a behind-the-scenes exchange between the pair at the interval at AESSEAL New York Stadium yesterday.

“I've known Kyle for a long time,” he said. “He came up the tunnel at half-time and I said to him ‘How are you still on the pitch, Big Man?’. He said ‘I shouldn't be’ and winked and smiled.

Man in the middle Leigh Doughty awarded a foul and took Wootton to one side to talk to him but took no further action.

“It's a terrible, terrible decision,” Evans said. “The player should have been off. For that not to be a yellow card is the referee not applying the laws and not doing his job.”

Doughty had a difficult afternoon and incurred the wrath of both sets of supporters.

Evans thought that his side should have been a awarded penalty for a stoppage-time push on striker Jonson Clarke-Harris while Stockport felt they deserved a spot-kick for a first-half trip on their scorer, Louis Barry.

County also reckoned that Dillon Phillips deserved his marching orders after Tanto Olaofe had burst clear, posting on social media that their winger had been “wiped out” by the home goalkeeper.

Play was waved on by Doughty and Evans dismissed the notion of any wrongdoing, saying: “I think the ball has hit Dillon's chest and it's a coming-together.”